Woman deals with online trolls in perfect way – tells their mammies!
Alanah Pearce is taking serious action against the young boys who threatened her with rape online – she’s contacting their mammies!
The 21-year-old, who works as a game reviewer in Brisbane, Australia took to Twitter to show a screen grab of a threat she had received which she then sent on to the troll’s mom, and wrote: “Sometimes young boys on Facebook send me rape threats, so I’ve started telling their mothers.”
One mum was clearly horrified by her son’s threat to Alanah and replied to her: “omg little shit. I’M SO SORRY. YES I WILL TALK TO HIM!!!”
Sometimes young boys on Facebook send me rape threats, so I've started telling their mothers. pic.twitter.com/0Cbs81eXiE
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 28, 2014
Alanah’s decision to reach out to the boys’ mums comes from her realisation, with a little research, that the shocking behaviour was coming from boys aged between 10 and 15 years old, she explained to The Guardian: “A while ago, I realised that a lot of people who send disgusting or overly sexual comments to me over the internet aren’t male adults. It turns out they’re mostly young boys and the problem is they don’t know any better, so responding to them rationally didn’t resolve the situation. And it got to the point where their comments were starting to make me feel really uncomfortable.”
The mum who replied to Alanah – thought to be the only one – has since gotten her son to write her a letter of apology, and has taken affirmative action in dealing with her son and other boys’ behaviour towards online threats: “She has gotten him to handwrite me a letter and she’s also spoken to other parents in the community. She is going to the school to talk about online harassment and bullying and trying to make other parents more aware of what their kids are saying online.”
We're glad that Alanah's positive reaction to her horrific online experience has garnered worldwide attention and will hopefully deter other trolls from such abuse.
